


A Promise for a Sweetheart

by shopfront



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/F, Goodbyes, Last Kiss, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:25:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teresa turns back for a proper farewell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Promise for a Sweetheart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamer_98](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamer_98/gifts).



Betty wiped the tears from her eyes and headed for her room, hurrying to hide herself away from the prying eyes of the other girls coming and going. Their voices were always loud and laughing, and where she'd usually chime in, tonight she couldn't bear it.

Slipping into her room and shutting the door behind her, Betty held her hand to her chest and sighed. It had felt heavy all day, aching away inside her with the knowledge that Teresa was leaving and such a short, public farewell in the common room had done little to ease it.

Betty felt the knock before she heard it, shivering its way through the wood and down her spine.

"Betty?" Teresa called through the door, her voice low but still clear as a bell. A proper officer's voice, just like always. "Did you come back up here?"

Teresa was mid-second knock before Betty could fling the door open again, even though it felt like she'd moved quick as the wind in a gale. Teresa's hand was raised, framing her bright if slightly strained smile.

"I couldn't just walk away. I still don't have long but... could I come in for a moment?"

"Absolutely, you can!" Betty stepped back and dipped her head in an enthusiastic nod. She felt her cheeks heat as Teresa walked into her room, just like they always did no matter how many times she had crossed that threshold.

It would be easy, oh so easy, to forget that they might not ever see each other again. 

Betty slipped her hand between the folds of her skirt and pinched her own thigh hard through the material. She couldn't let herself be distracted, she wanted to make the most of every unexpected last second she could steal with Teresa.

"I want you to remember what I said, this really is just the beginning for you," Teresa said, trailing her fingers across Betty's bedroom wall before seeming to come back to herself and straighten her spine, hands back by her side. "But I couldn't walk away without a proper goodbye..."

She trailed off, every inch the soldier alert and waiting for Betty's response like Betty would be issuing orders, but her eyes were warm and the corners of lips were raised.

Betty heard a desperate, hungry sort of a sound come out of her own mouth as she kicked the door shut, and then she was flinging herself across the room, cradling Teresa's face in her hands and kissing her like she'd wanted to do in the common room. Properly kissing her, like she was underwater and Teresa was fresh air, like she might never kiss her again.

"Please," Betty said helplessly against her lips as she felt Teresa's hands come up to pull Betty's away from her face, "please, please-"

Teresa made a gentle reassuring noise, still kissing Betty back. She didn't push Betty away like Betty had feared, but tangled their fingers together and brought their hands down by their sides. 

"Just need to watch the cap," she laughed a little, "wouldn't want to be giving anyone ideas now would we?"

It was all Betty wanted to do: give people ideas. If Teresa had to walk away from her, it was all she had in her to let Teresa do it without letting everyone know that she'd been Betty's. She wasn't going to be anymore, but she had been. 

The part of her that wavered in the face of what other people might think shivered in horror at the thought, but for a moment it was like she was on the dance floor again, with Teresa warm in her arms and her cheek pressed tight against Betty's. Besides which, most of her was too busy already grieving Teresa's leaving to care.

So instead of taking to the rooftops, she pushed the feeling aside once again and pulled Teresa in by their joined hands and kissed her goodbye with every ounce of feeling she felt like she had crammed inside her body, fairly thrumming as it was with her grief and her love now that they were safe behind closed doors.

Finally, though, Teresa pulled away once again and Betty had to reluctantly let her go. 

"I really do need to leave," Teresa said, breathless with another sad laugh in her voice, leaning in with her forehead resting against Betty's. "But I am going to miss you."

Betty felt her mouth contort as she tried to swallow back words - don't go, stay, stay with me, come back to me - but finally she repeated Teresa's words back to her. 

She would miss her too, like a great big gaping hole in her chest where her heart used to beat. Betty didn't want someone new, or the old familiar uncertainty and loneliness of guessing and looking, she just wanted Teresa here by her side like she was right now. Solid and real and in Betty's arms.

"You'll turn pretty girls heads for me while I'm gone, won't you?" Teresa whispered finally, when Betty didn't say anything more, a funny sort of parody of a soldier man leaving his girl behind but with all the wrong promises. It made Betty ache.

"I don't know if I can do that," she said with a biting chuckle. Betty shrugged a shoulder and moved to pull away, but Teresa held fast to where their hands were still anchored together.

"Honey, you can," Teresa insisted fiercely, ducking her head to follow Betty, to force her to meet her eyes. "You can, and you will, and you're going to have a beautiful life with someone after I'm gone. Promise me?"

Betty bit her lip and shook her head. "That's not fair, you can't make me promise that," she choked out.

"I can, and I will," Teresa said, eyes just as wide as Betty's felt. She leaned in to kiss her once more, quick and hard, and repeated the words against Betty's lips - _promise me_.

She did it again, and again, a kiss and those words, and again, until Betty broke down and flung her arms around Teresa's shoulders, burying her face against Teresa's uniform.

"I'll try," was all she said, struggling not to cry into her.

"Well, then I'm satisfied. I know you can do anything you try your hand at."

This time when Teresa pulled away, she reached out and caressed Betty's face with her hand, wiping away a tear as it spilled down her cheek.

"I'm glad I came back to kiss you one last time," she whispered into the quiet of her room, and then she dropped her hand, straightened her clothes, and turned back towards the door. "Goodbye, Betty."

Then she was gone, and it was all Betty could do to stagger to her bed and collapse on the edge, tears overwhelming her. She let herself cry, just for long enough to be sure that Teresa was clear of the building, that she wasn't coming back for another heart wrenching kiss. Then Betty took a deep breath, slipped out to the bathroom to wash her face, and strode back out into the night.

It still ached and then the brisk evening air stung her eyes where she'd been crying and made it feel worse, but she had a promise to keep and she couldn't start on that till she'd at least sorted out apologizing to Mrs Corbett.


End file.
